Wavves: Wavvves

Although Wavves' song titles read like
they're pulled from a Mad Libs with blanks like "Type of goth"
and "Place where sand meets water," each fuzzy punk blast
is far from formulaic. Wavvves, one-man-band Nathan
Wiliams' follow-up to last year's self-titled debut, shows in umpteen
foot-stomping melodies a mastery in the art of exploiting the tiniest
variations on the themes of a twentysomething's loneliness and
apathy. "Got no car, got no money," he sings on standout
"No Hope Kids." "I got nothing, nothing, nothing, not at
all."

In the Wavves kingdom, the answer to dreary times is to
hit the surf, hit the bong, hit the speaker cones with blunt
objects. The final directive makes for melodies augmented with
blistering squalls of feedback, perhaps best approximated by long
groupings of letters that don't spell anything. Uniform listlessness
can be an uplifting experience, however, if set to the proper power-chord progressions. "To the Dregs" turns out to be a
hip-shaker, and "So Bored" is downright chipper, with the
album's sunniest harmonies and a mini-solo closing it out.

Similar
distortion-based pop has brought acts like No Age and Times New
Viking accolades. Although it's easy (and lazy) to compare Wavves to
both acts, Williams' two-minute ditties also aspire to the sculpted
scuzz that kept Guided By Voices, Sebadoh and Sonic Youth above the
fray of contemporaries who never made it out of a 7" bin.

Wavves
takes a risk that pays off with the percussionless
Cobain-copying-the-Pixies "Weed Demon," which is as spooky
as it sounds. Less lucky is "Goth Girls," an instrumental
echoing what Animal Collective synthesizer demos probably sound like
in their nascent stages, and one of a handful of moments that sound
like they was more fun to create than they are to hear. Another
wordless track, "Rainbow Everywhere," sparkles as bright as
a bottle rocket shooting lasers. Just like real fireworks, there's a
"gather 'round" quality to this spectacle, but don't forget
some earplugs.